a sail to remember, April 1 ........ from P

The gods were smiling on us. After an uncommonly turbulent weather pattern, the wind shifted to the South and settled in at a steady 13 to 16 knots - perfect for a 70 mile sail due west to the Dry Tortuga Islands. After shaking out the reef in our main, we clipped along at 6.5 to 7.5 knots on a beam reach, covering the entire 65 mile leg in 9.5 hours! It was one of the best sailing days I have ever experienced. The sun was bright, the water was an irridescent sapphire, big fish were eager to grab our lure (see next blog post), the seas were only about two feet, and we sailed fast. Unreal.

It is called "blue water sailing" because you cannot see land in any direction - just water - all the way to the horizon any which way you look. We had not done any blue water sailing since Nantucket. But today we stretched Senara's legs from Boca Grande all the way to Garden Key (within the Dry Tortugas) in the Gulf of Mexico. We were blue-water until around 5:30 PM when the "land ho!" cry came from K up on the bow, and the imposing, picturesque walls of Fort Jefferson on Garden Key began to appear like an apparition. Our original plan had been to sail to the Bahamas. After nixing that plan, the Tortugas became our "exotic destination" goal. Today, as we picked our way through the channel around the fort to the anchorage area, a line from the Crosby Stills & Nash song "Southern Cross" kept playing in my head ........ "you understand now why you came this way....... " Indeed.

Approaching the walls of Fort Jefferson

Side trip out to Loggerhead Key.

C on the helm, on the first leg home.